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1.3.1-Columbina
Brick!Club 1.3.1 and 1.3.2 Twofer because, unlike Hugo, I have very little to say about 1817. 1.3.1 The Year 1817 New book everyone! High five! I am not even going to try to pretend that I did anything but skim this chapter and then go “Oh, hey, Byron, I know you,” and then keep skimming. Despite this, I do love it as a narrative technique, and I’m sure if I knew even a little bit more about it, I would find it fascinating. However: History neglects nearly all these particulars, and cannot do otherwise; the infinity would overwhelm it. Nevertheless, these details, which are wrongly called trivial,— there are no trivial facts in humanity, nor little leaves in vegetation,—are useful. Does this make anyone else think of Doctor Who? (Which made me think of the Doctor meets Hugo, and then I thought of the Doctor meets Valjean and then my heart broke before I even had a chance to imagine it properly. I don’t know what would happen, but I know I would cry about it.) 1.3.2 A Double Quartette THIS SECTION UPSETS ME because I love it or rather I want to love it or rather damn it Hugo why did you have to be so good why did you have to make this so charming why did you have to trick us into thinking people were going to be happy. Also the whole thing is just so 19th Century Mean Girls and I love it. I love them all, I don’t care how shallow you want me to think them, Hugo, I love them anyway. I also love their adorable nicknames, can we please all give ourselves nicknames? I love Favourite and her strange family / housing situation, what is going on there, we will probably never know. But I bet all of her stories start with “WELL, when I was in England…” (this is me being a total hypocrite, all of my stories start with “WELL, when I was in Japan…” but to be fair everything interesting that’s ever happened to me happened in Japan.) I love Dahlia, and I totally feel her on the nails issue. “''She who wishes to remain virtuous must not have pity on her hands''.” Shut up, Hugo, some of us would rather be pretty than virtuous, don’t judge. (Even though that’s a pretty fair thing to judge someone for.) I love Zephine and her awesome nickname and her sexy voice which I imagine is exactly like your stereotypical sexy French maid voice. I love Fantine’s backstory, the mixing of social history with personal. I have some feelings about it though! One is whether she was at an advantage (in terms of remaining pure or what-have-you) by not having a family? I mean, Favourite’s situation probably disillusioned her about the world pretty fast, and maybe without her family’s influence, Eponine could have been Fantine, you know? Because Fantine didn’t have anyone but herself, never really learnt social skills, she remained slightly on the outer edge of social circles and never learnt the tips and tricks the other girls knew, which kept her pure. On the other hand though, I kind of think that realistically, not having a family would mean she should have been more exposed to the underside of humanity than anyone else. How did she stay so ignorant / pure? Or in other words, HUGO YOU MAKE ME ANGRY WITH YOUR PARTIAL BACKSTORIES FOR LADIES. How on earth did she survive til ten? Was there an orphanage in M. sur M.? If there was, run by nuns, that would explain a lot. How did she find the work with the farmers? Did she survive just by being adorable? The paragraph makes it sound like she was well-known about town, oh, that little Fantine, scampering all over the place. But you would think that would be the quickest way to learn coquetry, if you figure out as a small child that people will slip you treats if you are acting particularly sweet that day. But, man, Tholomyes does not sound like a catch. Sorry, love. Commentary Laissezferre Completely agree with the lack of Fantine back story! It eats me up that we know so little on how Fantine survived her younger years. Was she a gamin? Because I have a particular fondness for gamins and wouldn’t it be great if she was? But then, the innocence would have been beaten out of her already. Was she in an orphanage then, or pray tell, a charity case in a convent (My mind would be blown if she was)? We will never know. Completely irrelevant but I find it so amusing that Hugo describes the women so well. You “know” that he “knows” them, all too well as I’ve read. I feel like he’s confessing his kinks or something. Mirrific Completely agree with the lack of Fantine back story! It eats me up that we know so little on how Fantine survived her younger years. Was she a gamin? Because I have a particular fondness for gamins and wouldn’t it be great if she was? But then, the innocence would have been beaten out of her already. Was she in an orphanage then, or pray tell, a charity case in a convent (My mind would be blown if she was)? We will never know. Columbina (reply to Mirrific) I feel like she MUST have been in a convent or something, how could she possibly stay so innocent on the streets? But I feel like ‘Fantine’ isn’t really a name that the sisters would let you keep, they’d give you some proper Christian name. So I guess she was just such an adorable child that she kind of became a universally adored town mascot? Like a post office cat, but a girl. Completely irrelevant but I find it so amusing that Hugo describes the women so well. You “know” that he “knows” them, all too well as I’ve read. I feel like he’s confessing his kinks or something. RIGHT? And they’re just such a girl group, there’s the innocent one, the sexy one, the bitchy one and the ditzy one. (At least that’s how I see them!) Mirrific (reply to Columbina's reply) I remarked on my first read of the Brick that ‘Victor Hugo is clearly a little in love with Fantine’- I mean, she’s so ~noble~ and ~wise~ and ~pure~ and has the innocence and naivety which he clearly admires (at least in women) over competence (which would make them more culpable for any ‘descent into vice’). While she is ‘sage’ (good/wise) it’s not in any streetwise way. I found her description very florid and involved in a way which I don’t now, having read that of Enjolras which someone’s pointed out is definitely parallel in some ways. Anyhow, I digress. I want to just run through all the possibilities for little Fantine (rather than getting caught up on laughing at Hugo’s rather obvious forshadowing ‘LOOK AT HER TEETH AND HER HAIR, GUYS!’) so I guess what I most want to say is that there are clear mother-daughter similarities and to me the circumstances of Fantine and later Cosette seem to be detailing a cycle of deprivation and poverty. Because Little Fantine sounds a lot like Little Cosette. Fantine is motherless and fatherless, walks around barefoot on the cobbles and is essentially named by the town. This reminds me distinctly of The Lark, the difference being that Fantine is free whereas Cosette has to work for the Thènadiers, is plainer and more sickly. The abuse and shelter of the Thènadiers, seemingly, is worse than the natural deprivation of Fantine, the description of whose youth sounds very carefree and Gamin-like. They’re both pretty darn sweet and innocent so maybe it runs in the family. Neither has lead a sheltered life up to the point that Valjean shows up. Fantine, instead, is taken up by Paris society which I think Hugo is portraying as something of a natural step for her and from that point their two existences begin to differ wildly. Cosette’s is cloistered, Fantine’s is utterly open to ‘corrupting influence’. While Fantine appears to have lead a gamin-like existence it’s one in a small town which seems relatively benevolent, a far cry from Paris where we meet her. What’s heartbreaking about her description to me is the way her anonymity is emphasised- she is simply a nobody, one of the manny working-girls consumed by the city. In her youth she was one of the village children who do odd jobs and are given a bite to eat from kindly passersby- this is not Paris and things are quite possibly easier and less illusion-stripping than they would be for an urchin there. I feel like when she arrived in Paris, Fantine was taken up into this Lain-quarter society which is clearly full of coquetry, accepting that this was the obvious way for a girl of her class and in her situation to behave. Columbina (reply to Mirrific's reply) Reblogging because I like this explanation, especially the idea that “somehow staying innocent in terrible circumstances” is a family trait for these girls. Pilferingapples (reply to Columbina's reply) Reblogging because ‘post office cat’ sounds exactly plausible, and because ANY Fantine backstory is better than what we’ve got, especially when it’s this sweet-sad.